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East Brush Creek: Ironedge Trail & Mystic Island LakeEast Brush Creek: Ironedge Trail & Mystic Island Lake

East Brush Creek: Ironedge Trail & Mystic Island Lake

Holy Cross Wilderness | Friday & Saturday, August 16-17, 2024

Aside from my weekend visit to the Red Table Mountain late last summer, I haven’t spent much time exploring the area at the very northern end of the Sawatch Range, so I decided to stick around after the GIS Colorado Summer Meetup to hike a couple of trails on the west side of the Holy Cross Wilderness, hoping they would be a little less popular than those found on the east side. After the GIS presentations at Sylvan Lake were completed early on Friday afternoon, I drove over Hardscrabble Mountain into Eagle for fuel and snacks and then headed up East Brush Creek and the Hat Creek Road to the Peter Estin Hut, which is one of the popular 10th Mountain Division Huts. From the parking area near the hut I hiked over to the Ironedge Trail and followed it to the ridgeline that makes up the boundary of the Holy Cross Wilderness and then continued up to the Charles Benchmark.

CONTINUE READINGEast Brush Creek: Ironedge Trail & Mystic Island Lake
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Sylvan Lake: Hardscrabble Mountain to Fulford CaveSylvan Lake: Hardscrabble Mountain to Fulford Cave

Sylvan Lake: Hardscrabble Mountain to Fulford Cave

Wednesday – Friday, August 14-16, 2024

This week I left after work on Wednesday afternoon and headed east on I-70 towards Eagle so I could spend Thursday and Friday attending the annual GIS Colorado Summer Meetup, which was being held at the Sylvan Lake State Park campground this year. I exited from the interstate at Gypsum and followed the road along Gypsum Creek around Hardscrabble Mountain below the edge of the Red Table Mountain as I hoped to take the backroads to Sylvan Lake, but when I was only a few miles away I ran into wet roads that were slick with mud and had to turn back and go around the long way through Eagle. I haven’t had good luck with the slick muddy roads in this area in the past, so I didn’t want to take any chances! Here are some photos from a few days spent at the Elk Run Campground next to Sylvan Lake.

CONTINUE READINGSylvan Lake: Hardscrabble Mountain to Fulford Cave
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Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett PeakChepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

Headwaters of the Whiterocks River | Friday – Sunday, August 9-11, 2024

After last week’s backpacking trip to the Red Castle Lakes in the High Uintas Wilderness I didn’t have any plans on returning to the Uinta Mountains anytime soon. However, after keeping an eye on the weather forecast around Colorado for the upcoming weekend, I couldn’t find a mountain range within a couple hundred miles of home that didn’t show stormy weather all day and night. It was going to be a wet and stormy weekend in the mountains of Colorado! I was originally hoping to spend the weekend hiking along the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains, but on Friday afternoon I made a last-minute decision to head up to the eastern end of the Uinta Mountains with hopes that I would be able to get some hiking in since the weather forecast for this area looked like the best around with only the typical afternoon storms. So for the second time in as many weeks I left from work and drove over Douglas Pass on my way to the Uinta Mountains. After a quick stop for fuel in Vernal I headed out across the Uinta Basin and then followed the Whiterocks River up to it’s headwaters at Chepeta Lake.

CONTINUE READINGChepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak
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Red Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths ForkRed Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork

Red Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork

High Uintas Wilderness | Thursday – Sunday, August 1-4, 2024

After Diane and I backpacked into Henrys Fork and then hiked to the summit of Kings Peak in the Uinta Mountains back in 2018, we had talked about returning to the High Uintas Wilderness every other year for a new backpacking trip. Unfortunately, we did not keep up with that idea and have not returned since that trip, but this year I was determined to finally get back and planned for us to spend a couple nights near the Red Castle in the East Fork of Smiths Fork, which is a location I have wanted to visit for quite a long time. Although I would have preferred to do this trip much later in August, Diane was pretty busy at that time and the only weekend that work for both of us was the first weekend in August, so that’s when we would have to go. We left from home after Diane got out of work on Thursday evening and drove up to the Red Canyon Campground within the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and arrived shortly after dark. We quickly got our tent set up and were in our sleeping bags by 10:00pm.

CONTINUE READINGRed Castle Lakes via the East Fork of Smiths Fork
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The Elk Mountains: Geneva Lake to Siberia LakeElk Mountains: Geneva Lake to Siberia Lake

The Elk Mountains: Geneva Lake to Siberia Lake

Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness | Saturday & Sunday, July 27-28, 2024

Last year Diane and I had a permit and planned to spend a weekend camping at Geneva Lake in the Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness, but after we had driven most of the way to the trailhead we were turned around by a very slick and muddy road and the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend wasn’t looking too good, so we decided to call it a weekend and headed back home instead. I decided to give the same trip a try this summer and grabbed another camping permit for Geneva Lake, but this time Diane was out of town so I invited my friend Jackson to come along with me. I picked up Jackson early on Saturday morning and we drove around the Grand Mesa, over McClure Pass and then followed the Crystal River up to the trailhead in Lead King Basin where we shouldered our packs and started hiking up the trail to Geneva Lake.

CONTINUE READINGThe Elk Mountains: Geneva Lake to Siberia Lake
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